NUCLEAR waste will be transported through Essex to be stored at Bradwell power station, it has emerged.

The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority wants to take the waste from Dungeness power station and store it at Bradwell until 2040.

Containers will be taken by train to Southminster, then loaded on to lorries and delivered between this year and 2018.

Maldon District Council remains against the importing of nuclear waste to Bradwell and is seeking compensation for local residents.

A report by Phillip Rowson, the council’s development and projects manager, said: “Asamatter of principle, officers consider that the local community must be adequately compensated for the importation of a significant quantity of intermediate level waste at the Bradwell site.

“The compensation should also reflect the inconvenience created by increased movements on the local road network and disturbances at the railhead associated with the management of the waste.”

No set amount has been requested, but officers say it should be “direct and proportionate”

to the savings made by the decommissioning authority and the disturbance caused and site security needed at Bradwell.

Officers also want detailed information about how the waste would be safely transported and assurances it would not be stored overnight at the railway station.

There is also concern about the 100 lorry journeys and whether the rural roads would cope.

Residents can comment on the plans until January 31 at http://nda.gov.uk/news/preferred -options-facilities-magnox-ltd.cfm